August 2008

Get Started with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.0

By Henny Swan, Senior Web Accessibility Consultant, RNIB

The Web has evolved considerably since 1999 when the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 1.0 was published. Today, we see increased functionality, interactivity and use of technologies such as multimedia, Flash, AJAX, and more. Combined these bring a richer experience to most Web users but due to their complexities have left many disabled users behind. The WCAG version builds on WCAG 1.0 to accommodate all of today's Web technologies and help bring an accessible rich experience to all Web users.

WCAG 2.0 has drawn much comments and debate from the Web development community but the time is fast drawing near when many of us, if we haven't already, will need to start implementing WCAG 2.0 in our own or our clients' Web projects. While WCAG 1.0 is, at the time of writing, the current published version of the guidelines, WCAG is expected to be published very soon and there is no time like the present to start working with the new set of guidelines.

Even if you have been working with WCAG 1.0 this can seem a daunting task, however the Web Accessibility Initiative, the people who write the guidelines, have provided some excellent resources to help you understand how to update your Website from WCAG 1.0 to 2.0. So if you are wondering how to start with WCAG 2.0 here are a few resources (all of these documents can be reached from the Overview of WCAG 2.0 at http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag20.php(External Link)):